One metric for describing microprocessor performance is the load-use cost, which refers to the number of cycles that must pass between an operation that loads information from a memory location and an instruction that uses the information from that memory location. The load-use cost takes into account the time associated with removing information from memory, formatting the information, and storing the information in the register file of the processor for use by other instructions. Various schemes exist for lowering load use, such as caching schemes, which store a subset of the data in smaller, faster memory closer to the processor.
Register-renaming is used in some microprocessor designs. With register renaming, an architecturally specified register comprises a pointer that points to a much larger array of registers. This allows for speculative execution of instructions without excessive amounts of data movement.